Humans need some kind of identity (often religion gives it). Same for nationalism. But Tribalism has a dark side- it makes us hate others. Pakistan and India are a victim of this, though Pakistan went theocratic almost effectively immediately after secular Jinnah’s death.../1

...Hindu India because of its metaphysical philosophical traditions had an automatic safeguard against intolerance( which paradoxically possibly was exploited by invaders to easily invade it). The Hindutva movement from late 1980s with the growth of Indian middle class was.../2

..partly an organic movement against past invasions of Hindu India by invaders( first Muslim kings, later Europeans) and to sort remove collective psychological memories of those insults and also a revolt against politically correct secularism of some liberals in India. So... /3

...Hindutva started as a genuine movement. Yet Hindutva movement( as inevitably is) was taken over by politicians who saw it as a movement with unlimited potential to win votes. Though Hindutva has retained some of its original purpose, it is increasingly turning to typical.../4

..tribalism which often identity politics distills into. Naive optimists like me assumed that Hindutva can achieve its goals without going into familiar ugly tribalism- may that is not possible in identity politics. And Indian Muslim are increasingly finding themselves.../5

..at the receiving end of this over assertive, almost aggressive Hindutva identity politics. Almost all major media houses, policy making institutions, judicial oversight bodies have been captured in new India by the over zealous Hindutva Identity enforcers. Indian Muslims.../6

..who historically have been economically weak and hence also lower literacy rates( except Muslim majority Kashmir) are quite vulnerable in new India. Take the case of Kashmir, India’s only Muslim majority state. While it has had long periods of stability, it has often been.../7

..source of tension between India and Pakistan. Visionary and humanistic leaders like Nehru( and political party Congress) to their credit made sure non-Kashmiri Muslims never faced any discrimination in Hindu majority India because of Kashmir. But lately due to Hindutva.../8

..identity politics getting more assertive, indirectly non-Kashmiri Muslims are made answerable for the happenings in Kashmir( of course not always directly, but with subtle elections slogans, social media campaigns). This is grossly unfair as non-Kashmiri Muslims have always../9

..tried to get on with their daily life and never taken a partial or anti-India stance on Kashmir. In fact reading between lines of political discourse by some of India’s new age Hindutva style media commentators, no distinction is often made between the project of Hindutva.../10

...social project and need to keep Indian Muslims as sort of ‘another’ kind of inferior citizens- as if this is already a matter of consensus and not debate. Of course this is not helped by the disproportionate influence Islamic religious groups had in Pakistani Public and.../11

..foreign policy( which Imran Khan despite his deals with army is lately trying to fix systematically to be fair). Contrary to popular belief the Hindu nationalism is actually helping India become an economically and technologically stronger country(though on a smaller scale../12

..than some hyperbolic social media handles will make us believe). The danger is that an economically stronger India controlled by ‘blinded by idealogical righteousness’ Hundutva parties will introduce subtle institutional discrimination against Indian Muslims. All right.../13

...Hindus who are proud of their metaphysical philosophical tradition of tolerance of Hinduism should not be blinded by this and should intervene. For the Indian Muslims reacting with emotion will not help- they need to focus on institutions and vociferously guard against.../14

..subtle discrimination against them gets institutionalized and it getting accepted as part of a normal social contract. The best solution is of course checks and balances in the Hindutva political discourse but right now looks quite worrisome. /15